HMCS Bonaventure by NavyShooter - 1/96 scale - an RCN fitting out

[AON]

If only I was. ☹️

[Sailor1234567890]

Thanks for that talk at the boat show on Saturday. Your Bonnie's looking awesome. Looking forward to seeing video of her underway in someone's pool.

 

[NavyShooter]

It was nice to have met you!  You're welcome to come out to the boat club meetings at the Maritime Museum - 3rd Saturday of the month at 10 AM!

 

Now that the show is behind me, I can look at the next major milestone, which is, I think, getting the shaft lines and hull fixed.

 

One of the problems with the Bonnie model I'm working on is that the prop shafts aren't quite right. I tested the ship in a friend's swimming pool once and the props were poorly balanced, the shafts leaked, and were not proper stuffing boxes, rather, just a piece of 1/4" brass rod inside a snug fitting (but not tight, nor sealed) brass tube.

 

The other piece of the puzzle is that the 'skegs' that support the shafts end about 3.5" short of the end, so instead of support straight to the end of the shaft, instead there's a poorly balanced prop, with about 4" of shaft to flap around on. That's....not good.

 

So.

 

How to fix that? Can I get stuffing tubes that will fit inside? Not really. Still doesn't fix the skegs...so....the only answer I can see is to de-construct/destroy, then rebuild.

 

So.

 

I ordered a set of 15" long 6mm stuffing tubes with 4mm shafts, and a new set of props.

 

I've started with measuring some things...and realize that I need longer shafts than 15", but these will get things started at least in terms of fitting.

I'm going to end up having to remove the 'as fitted' skegs on the model, and replace them, and in pondering the right way to do that, I decided to try my hand at some basic 3D design - and I have been able to successfully loft/blend these together. There's still work to be done, but this is a good start.

 

With the Skegs made, I also made an alignment block for the shafts. This will hold the shafts in the correct alignment to each other as they are inserted and glued in place.

 

Intent is to glue/epoxy the replacement skegs on, then put a layer or two of fiberglass over top and blend them into the hull. We'll see how that all works out.

 

I'm thinking that there will be some pauses while waiting for weather warm enough to have the fiberglass actually set...so that'll give me time to detail out the hangar deck a bit as a background activity. 

[targa4403]

what an awesome looking model.

[NavyShooter]

OK, so this is how my evening started.  My wife had a dinner party with some of her friends over, so after picking a minion up from hockey, I had the chance to head out to the garage and putter about.  

 

If you look closely, you'll see the cracks, and you can clearly see how the 'skegs' do not extend the whole length of the shaft line.  The last 3.5" is free hanging, and you can see the cracks which resulted from that.

[NavyShooter]

That is the assessment of the situation....here's what happened next.  I pulled out the coping saw and started cutting.  It was slow going.

 

After about 10 minutes with the coping saw, I decided that I needed to go big...so I dug out the old 1" Stanley chisel and an 8 ounce hammer, and started tapping away.

 

 

[NavyShooter]

I then had the measure of the task, and of the durability of the hull, so I went to town...and about 20 minutes later, here we are...both old shafts stripped out. 

 

There is still sanding to do - but this is the bulk of the destruction completed. 

 

With the chisel, it took a lot less time that I'd anticipated.

[NavyShooter]

At the end of the evening, here's how things look.  The replacement 3D printed Skegs are almost a perfect drop-in replacement.  I'm shocked actually at how well this went together. 

There is a small question of alignment and shaft length - I think I need to order a pair of 20" shafts, but I'll re-visit that tomorrow when I am able to thing about rebuilding her.

 

I am quite pleased...yes, sanding, aligning, epoxying, fiberglassing and gell-coating are all still ahead, but damn....this is looking really really good.

[Canute]

Gonna look good when it's faired in and painted, Brad.

[NavyShooter]

Thanks!  

 

A new version of the Skegs is heading to the printer in the basement in the morning - the aft end of them wasn't looking very streamlined, so that's been fixed up a bit.

 

[NavyShooter]

As the newest version of the Skegs is almost done printing (should be there when I get home tonight) I decided to do some design work for some search lights.  We'll see if these will work out better than the file I got from a friend:

 

[NavyShooter]

Not much to report lately - the searchlight print didn't go as planned, and the prop shafts only got shipped out to me on Thursday.  

 

I expect I'll have them in hand in about 2 weeks.

[NavyShooter]

Good news!  The new shaft-lines arrived the other day!  I'll do a test-fit, and then I'll be getting into some fiberglass work!

NS
 

[NavyShooter]

Alas, no progress for another week...I'm on vacation keeping SWWBO happy.

 

There is some consolation to the rum punch by the pool though....

[NavyShooter]

There will soon be space on my workbench for the Bonnie again.  I've been working on the HMCS St Thomas build for the past few months, as well as helping a friend get his Liberty Ship functionally RC'd.  Those two tasks have been almost completed, so I can foresee some more progress on the Bonnie.  In fact, I started working the other night on reprinting the Stbd Forward radio mast which I did in December, then stalled on when the print didn't work out.  We'll see how it looks this time around.  

 

Here's the St Thomas, and one of the other projects that's coming off my 3D printer...I'm making some training aids for my Army Reserve Unit as well. 

[NavyShooter]

OK, so here we go....I did a test fit with the shafts and the alignment block and motor mount block, and observed the rather poor fit.

 

So.

 

30 minutes with a drill and a razor saw later, we have some nice open holes that the shafts will float freely in.  Now I can simply align the blocks on each end and then do some epoxy work. 

[Ian B]

ooooooooooooooooo doing that would frighten me to death 😱

[NavyShooter]

1 hour ago, Ian B said:

ooooooooooooooooo doing that would frighten me to death 😱

You should have seen me going at her with the chisel to get the old Skegs off....that was scary.

 

It is, however, necessary. 

 

The old skegs were unsupported at the ends, the props unbalanced, and the shafts were not sealed.  

 

I could have tried adding A-frames, but that would not have been correct for scale, and would still not have rectified the not-sealed shafts that leaked.

 

NS
 

[Ian B]

3 hours ago, NavyShooter said:

You should have seen me going at her with the chisel to get the old Skegs off....that was scary.

 

It is, however, necessary. 

 

The old skegs were unsupported at the ends, the props unbalanced, and the shafts were not sealed.  

 

I could have tried adding A-frames, but that would not have been correct for scale, and would still not have rectified the not-sealed shafts that leaked.

 

NS
 

What a fab ship , can't wait to see those props turning 😎

[NavyShooter]

OK, after dropping an alignment jig and breaking it, re-printing it, and getting a new motor mount printed, I think I'm almost ready to epoxy things into place.

 

Here's how she looks tonight:

 

 

 

 

 

[NavyShooter]

OK, after a second application of epoxy, I have 'adjusted fires' to putting on some putty.  Once the putty dries, I'll be sanding it, then putting a layer of fiberglass overtop to lock everything together.

 

As I wait for things to dry though, I had some time out in the garage to kill...so....I started working on the anchor system.  Plan is to have one anchor functional.  First challenge was getting the holes drilled - the original builder made a cable deck area, but did not punch holes out the bow, nor put in the hawse pipes.

 

So.  Off to the drawings, got some dimensions, did some measuring, and started drilling some holes.  Started small, and worked up to final size of 1/4".  

 

Cut a couple sections of brass tubing to go in as the inserts, which are now in place and epoxied.  

 

Then I fiddled with the anchor a bit - it's solid brass, but it's light...so I added a bit of 'weight' on the bottom of it - a bit of solder tacked on with a torch.  I'm not sure how much difference that'll make, but it shouldn't hurt!

 

Here's some photos.

 

[NavyShooter]

So, as I waited for the epoxy to dry so that I can sand down the protruding bits, I decided to have a look at how things are going together...and so I set the hangar deck into the hull.  With the new motor mount in place, I wanted to make sure I had clearance below the hangar (which I do!)  Then I looked at things a bit harder, and realized that I still had to cut a couple of inner frames down by a bit to fit the hangar fully into the hull.  

 

So. 

 

Out came the razor saw, and off I went, having marked the frames.  5 minutes later, the hangar deck is now resting flush with the flight deck, where it belongs!

 

I put the island on to check clearances, as the plan is to have the island fixed in place, and be able to remove the hangar deck when necessary without removing the island.  All of the 'major' electronics will be along the keel, below the hangar deck.

 

So...this was the first time I'd had a chance to fit it all up, and by thunderin', she fits!  

 

Here's a few more photos for your viewing pleasure.  I decided to stick some Banshees into the Hangar for the last couple of photos. 

[NavyShooter]

So....in looking at the photos above, I realized that there was a gap that bothered me.  That being the gap astern of the aft hangar bay.  When the flight deck panel for the aft hangar bay is open, it will let this space be seen, and I'm not a fan of this big ugly gap...so what to do about that?

 

I stepped back to the plans, and pondered things.

 

See the plan view with the red highlights....That's what I'm going to build to fill the gap.

 

Some 3D design wizardry and 4 hours of printing, and presto...I have the 'sample' to test fit and adjust ready to pop into the hull tonight.  There WILL be changes necessary to this, however, the most important part of fitting in with the already printed cable deck section was key.

 

It fits as can be seen in image 3.  Which is a good thing.

I've already started doing some detail-work on the interior spaces - there is a selection of workshops and the wardroom galley space in here, so I'm going to have fun designing and printing some of these bits.  We'll see how it all looks in the end!

 

[NavyShooter]

[NavyShooter]

Alrighty....and I discovered that I'm sometimes a bit of a dummy...

 

I took the printed part out to the shop and tried to test fit it...and couldn't get it into the hull.  Too wide.  Of course.  The overhead frame did not allow it to sit in...so now it's chopped into smaller sections and we'll see how that looks tomorrow.

 

And I fixed a few minor points of alignment in the model...

[NavyShooter]

Great thing about 3D printing is that if things ain't quite right, you can modify and pop out a new part in just a few hours. 

 

Here's where we are at tonight...version 4 seems to be about right. 

 

 

[NavyShooter]

I've got some Veterans dropping over on Wednesday evening to have a look at the Bonnie...including a couple who sailed on her back in the 60s.

 

So, I set aside the work on the shaft lines, did some tidying, and dressed her up to show her off.

 

Here's how she looks tonight:

 

 

[lmagna]

I think they will be impressed. I know i am. (I'm also jealous of your 3D printing skills.)

[NavyShooter]

OK, had a great visit with 3 veterans who came out, alas, the gent who sailed on the Bonnie wasn't feeling so great and didn't come with the others.  The 4 of us had a great time telling old sea stories, and poking about my workshop.  A relaxing night.  

 

With a hurricane visiting Halifax this weekend, I had some time at home to do some puttering about, and this afternoon I finally started the fiberglass work on the skegs.  And the bottom of the hull.  I ended up having a look at the keel, and oh my, there was a bit of a mess that I really hadn't appreciated before.  So.  Solution is a couple layers of fiberglass with a bit of sanding between.

 

The skegs got a layer of cloth added, and several layers of resin.  (Got 4 layers down this evening.)  

 

Here's some photos:

 

In the beginning....

 

The Cloth.

 

The end - after 4 layers.  

[NavyShooter]

I also took the time this evening to put a layer of bright orange on the test target drone at last.

 

Came out pretty good I think!